But I say to you repeats a formula of emphasis used several times throughout this discourse; it first appears in verse 22.

Love your enemies is the rendering of most all English translations. Following this command, some late manuscripts of the New Testament insert “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you” (so King James Version; see the footnotes of New English Bible and New International Version). This addition comes from the parallel account in Luke 6.27-28. As TC-GNT indicates, the omission of these exhortations from the earliest representatives of the different text types “would be entirely unaccountable,” had they originally been a part of Matthew’s Gospel. Love your enemies is an exhortation or a command: “You must have love for” or “You are to show love for.” See the comment at verse 34 on “love.” Enemies was discussed in the previous verse.

Both Matthew and Luke (6.27-28) indicate that the disciples are to pray for those who oppose them. The verb translated pray occurs a total of eighty-six times in the New Testament, including sixteen times in this Gospel; it is the most general verb used of prayer, and any specific meaning (whether petition, request, or any other) will depend entirely upon the context in which it is used. Here pray can be translated “ask God to bless” or “pray to God to help.”

The inclusion of persecute in Matthew, as opposed to the more general terms in Luke (“hate … curse … abuse”), intimates to some scholars that Matthew is thinking of a realistic situation in which the disciples are now undergoing persecution. The verb persecute is found also in 5.10, 11, 12; 10.23; 23.34; it generally refers to religious persecution. Persecute was discussed in verse 10. Here it can be “those who cause you to suffer,” “who harm you,” or “who mistreat you.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .